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  • Special Column: New Trends in Subjective Well-Being of China's Migrant Population from a Gender Perspective
    GU Moli, TANG Shuangshuang
    South China Geographical Journal. 2024, 2(4): 1-13. https://doi.org/10.20125/j.2097-2245.202404001

    The rapid pace of urbanization and the continuous evolution of social attitudes underscore the importance of examining subjective well-being among migrants from a gender perspective. Based on the literature in the Web of Science Core Collection database, CiteSpace was used to analyze the related literature econometrically. The research on migrants' subjective well-being from the gender perspective is systematized in terms of relevant theories, temporal and spatial evolution characteristics, research hotspots, regional differences, and so on. The findings indicate that theories about subjective well-being are evolving at a rapid pace, with a research trend exhibiting a fluctuating upward trajectory. The research area has a strong localization. The main topics of interest in current research include: multidimensional characteristics, family well-being, social problems, and group differences. Concurrently, domestic and international research trends exhibit differentiation, which is reflected in the research theme, object, perspective, and other aspects. It is proposed that Chinese migrant women exhibit distinctive characteristics that warrant further investigation. In the future, academics should strive to enhance and expand the research on subjective well-being by focusing on themes such as the multifaceted effects and underlying mechanisms of subjective well-being, China's socio-cultural context, and geographic perspectives.

  • Special Column: New Trends in Subjective Well-Being of China's Migrant Population from a Gender Perspective
    XU Qiqi, GU Moli, TANG Shuangshuang
    South China Geographical Journal. 2024, 2(4): 14-28. https://doi.org/10.20125/j.2097-2245.202404002

    Based on a recent questionnaire survey in Nanjing, this paper explores the social integration level of rural migrant women and its influencing factors from the perspective of generational differences. The main conclusions are as follows: (1) The social integration level of rural floating women is not high, and the integration level of four sub-dimensions from high to low are economic integration, social adaptation, cultural integration, and psychological integration. (2) There are differences in the level of social integration among two generations of rural migrant women. The new generation of rural migrant women has a higher social integration level in general, but their integration in the sub-dimension shows different characteristics. (3) High-quality human capital, family migration patterns, and a good community environment can effectively promote the social integration of rural migrant women. (4) There are differences in influencing factors of social integration between the new and old generations. Individual factors play a more prominent role in promoting the social integration of the new generation of rural migrant women. The effect of family migration on the social integration of the older generation is stronger than that of the new generation. The new and old generations pay different attention to the community level. The old generation pays attention to community security and the surrounding shopping and medical facilities, whereas the new generation pays attention to the community activity space, education, and medical facilities.

  • Special Column: New Trends in Subjective Well-Being of China's Migrant Population from a Gender Perspective
    CAO Zhiqiang, LIU Tao
    South China Geographical Journal. 2024, 2(4): 29-39. https://doi.org/10.20125/j.2097-2245.202404003

    Based on data from the 2017 China Migrant Dynamic Survey (CMDS), this paper investigates the heterogeneous effects of work and family factors on the settlement intentions of migrants and their gender differences, and examines the moderating role of education. The study finds that (1) the impact of family migration is significantly higher than employment stability for both men and women, and family reunion has become a common priority value in the settlement decision of China's internal migrants. There is no gender difference in the impact of family migration, while the impact of employment stability is significantly higher for men. (2) The experience of higher education significantly increases the importance of work in the settlement decision-making of female migrants, but significantly reduces the importance of work and family for males, so that the differences between work and family, and between males and females, tend to disappear. Highly educated females are more in need of a gender-equal labor market and socio-cultural environment. (3) The experience of migration has had a significant impact on the gender perceptions of both male and female migrants, but women's perceptions are still largely limited by their economic capacity. The article proposes policy recommendations for the improvement of urban social environment and research topics on gender differences and notion transformations of the migrant population.

  • Special Column: New Trends in Subjective Well-Being of China's Migrant Population from a Gender Perspective
    YOU Xuejie, LIN Liyue, XIAO Yi
    South China Geographical Journal. 2024, 2(4): 40-51. https://doi.org/10.20125/j.2097-2245.202404004

    Living conditions play a key role in the mental health of rural migrant women. A large number of rural migrant women have moved to cities in search of opportunities, but the poor living conditions of most of them have triggered the discussion of health inequality. Using data from a questionnaire survey conducted in Fuzhou, the study examines the effects of living conditions on rural migrant women's mental health and their mechanisms of action in terms of four dimensions: type of neighborhood, source of housing, housing facilities, and satisfaction with housing quality. The study found that: (1) the mental health of rural migrant women is generally good, and nearly 30% of the interviewed group may have some degree of mental health problems; (2) The effects of different dimensions of living conditions vary: living in old communities and urban villages, having complete housing facilities and a high degree of satisfaction with the quality of housing positively affects rural migrant women's mental health; renting and owning housing negatively affects rural migrant women's mental health; (3) Social integration and neighborhood interaction play a degree of mediating effect: Social integration partially mediates the effects of housing facilities and satisfaction with housing quality on the mental health of rural migrant women, overshadowing some of the negative effects of rented housing; Neighborhood interactions play a partially mediating role in the impact effects of community type as old communities and urban village and housing amenities, overshadowing some of the negative impacts of the economic pressures of homeownership.

  • Political Geography
    SUN Ao, WANG Tao, LIU Yungang
    South China Geographical Journal. 2024, 2(4): 52-62. https://doi.org/10.20125/j.2097-2245.202404005

    After the end of Suharto's rule, Indonesia embarked on a large-scale decentralization movement, resulting in significant changes to its territorial governance structure. As a key region for territorial research, Indonesia provides a valuable case study. This paper, grounded in a theoretical overview of decentralization and territorial evolution, examines the transformations in Indonesia's territorial governance under decentralization.The findings of this study are as follows: First, local governments in Indonesia have gained increased authority and responsibilities following decentralization, emerging as key actors in territorial governance. Second, territorial fragmentation, territorial autonomy, and territorial independence have become the three most prominent forms of governance in post-decentralization Indonesia. Third, territorial governance in Indonesia is dynamically evolving, shaped by the ongoing interplay between central and local governments. Together, these various forms of governance create a complex structure of territorial governance in the country. This paper contributes to a deeper, region-specific understanding of Indonesia. Its implications underscore the importance of fully understanding and respecting Indonesia's unique national context in the process of collaboration and communication between China and Indonesia. Moreover, it highlights the critical role of local governments in Indonesia's territorial governance.

  • Theoretical Frontiers
    GU Chaolin, CHEN Lelin, GU Jiang, GAO Zhe, SU Hefang, GUO Li
    South China Geographical Journal. 2023, 1(2): 1-14. https://doi.org/10.20125/j.2097-2245.202302001

    Rapid urbanization and climate change are rapidly changing earth and the earth systems. This paper explores the new tasks and new frontiers of Chinese geography from the perspective of the Anthropocene. As a crucial discipline within earth sciences, geography spans the natural and social sciences and is poised to become the most promising field in the era of Anthropocene. It is a new mission of geography to define the spatiotemporal structure of anthroposphere, rebuild the framework of the human-environment relationships, conduct research on topology of the human geography, return to research on sustainable development based on the unified geography. Human geography, as the most important branch of geography, will be reshaped for rapid world urbanization, climate change and sustainable issues. For historical geography, it needs to pay greater attention to the impact of human activities, such as the history of prehistoric marine civilization and continental civilization, as well as the history of the modern environmental pollution. For economic geography, it could be on finance-trade-globalization, global value chains-global production chains-global industrial chains, of course the "global South"will be becoming a hot spot and of focus. Due to the collectivization of western countries centered on the United States, the trend of deglobalization and the increasing risk of the new cold war, political geography is in urgent development need. It could be shifting from geopolitics to global governance, rebuilt an effective global institution for cooperation that belong fields of unconventional and new energy technologies. For social geography, it would prioritize social issues on the global perspective, especially as rapid world urbanization and global climate change have inequalities of race, gender, class and some other social groups. Information technology and the Internet have given Cultural Geography new connotations and new opportunities for development. It is necessary to pay special attention to the significance of human beings' use of various words and semiotics tools to the planet and its place where human being live, and explore more effective countermeasures to intervene in rapid earth change. In response to the accelerated processes of urbanization, climate and earth changes, Urban Geography should swiftly transition from a traditional framework focused on "urbanization-urban systems-internal urban structures" to a new framework focusing on modernization based on green growth. It is very likely that Anthropocene geography will give geographers some new disciplines to develop imaginary fields, such as deep sea and deep space exploration, planetary geography, interstellar colonization and migration.

  • Theoretical Frontiers
    LU Yuqi
    South China Geographical Journal. 2023, 1(1): 10-21. https://doi.org/10.20125/j.2097-2245.202301002

    Basic hypothesis is the logical starting point for any disciplines; however, the regional school believes that basic hypothesis is not needed because geography is more concerned with the exploration of regional individuality and the analysis of regional differences. Obviously, this view, while addressing the application of geography and meeting the need for problem-oriented researches, but differs from the general definition of science. The basic hypothesis of the spatial school is homogeneous space (plain), according to which a corresponding theoretical system is constructed, which is more in line with the general scientific definition. Although scholars have previously pointed out the defect that the views the spatial school holds were too abstract, then they fell into a socialized and microscopic path of development, which apparently does not solve the problem of the path of development of the spatial school or even the discipline of human geography. This paper argues that the spatial school, starting from the basic hypothesis of homogeneous space, does not answer the locational question (from a geographic perspective) of the generation of (the first) city, although it solves the question of the mechanism of the generation of (the first) city (from an economic perspective) through the spatial polarization effect. For this reason, the basic hypothesis of human geography needs to be redefined, i.e., homogeneous spaces need to be replaced with homogeneous regions. The latter differs from the former in that there is a clear boundary range, thus homogeneous regions have locational value function attribute, regional scale attribute, regional open state attribute, etc. Thus, reconstructing the basic hypothesis not only addresses the existing inherent deficiencies of the spatial school (it is so abstract as to be divorced from geography), also supplements the basic hypothesis for the existing regional school (which is less restricted to basic assumptions and more focused on application). On this basis, this paper integrates the combined effects of spatial polarization effect, distance attenuation effect, regional edge effect and allometric growth effect, to construct a regional spatial structure theory system, which is composed of point elements, linear elements and area elements. Besides, point structure theory, axis structure theory and area structure theory are also integrated in the regional spatial structure theory this paper conducts.

  • Theoretical Frontiers
    LI Xun, GU Yu, DENG Weihuan, XU Weipan, CHEN Yifan
    South China Geographical Journal. 2023, 1(1): 22-35. https://doi.org/10.20125/j.2097-2245.202301003

    Data is one of the most crucial issues in achieving sustainable development in rural areas. Hitherto, emerging techniques, like remote sensing and machine learning, provide a promising foundation aiming at the data acquisition, calculation, and analysis, especially for vast, scattered, and full of territory heterogeneity villages. Specifically, the methodology of the Computable Village establishes the imagery-figure relationship via deriving systematically the multi-sourced data of rural natural and human settlement subjects; besides describing various rural elements quantificationally levering index calculating, data mining, and Artificial Intelligence methods, which could further unveil the spatial discrepancy and dynamic tendency of rural development in the total territory, and thus provides a possibility for rural researches striding from local to global. In this paper, a technical framework of the Computable Village is proposed including: (1) the categories and features of multi-sourced rural data such as remote sensing; (2) the computing approaches for rural data and the intelligent interpretation techniques for imagery-figure relationship; (3) the supports from the computed results to rural sustainable developments. Finally, the current challenges as well the further research directions are discussed and envisaged aiming at the Computable Village.

  • Theoretical Frontiers
    QIN Kun, ZHOU Yang, HUANG Jing, LIU Juan, YU Xuesong, GAO Muhan, LIU Donghai, GAO Xieqing
    South China Geographical Journal. 2023, 1(1): 36-50. https://doi.org/10.20125/j.2097-2245.202301004

    Earth System Model (ESM) is a set of important tools to understand the mechanism of historical climate change and environment evolution, to forecast the future potential global change, and it is an important platform to integrate related researches about geosciences. The research object of geographic information science is developing from the traditional earth surface to the entire earth system. This paper summarizes and analyzes the theories and key technologies of the earth system model from the perspective of geographic information science. It includes basic concepts of the earth system model and their component relationships, the key technologies of the earth system model (including numerical model and solving methods, parametrization methods, high performance parallel computation methods, data storage methods for mass data, and so on), critical data of the earth system model (including the reanalysis data from the United States, Europe, Japan, and China), and the forecast methods of the earth system model (including ensemble forecast, multiscale forecast, intelligent forecast, high spatiotemporal resolution forecast). Finally, the paper prospects the future development trend and application prospect of the earth system model research.